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December 4, 2009

Robber, jewerly store owner shoot it out in Alamo shop

An Alamo jewelry store employee wasn't going to give in to a gunman who entered his store Thursday night and attempted to rob his business. The 53-year-old employee pulled out a gun, and the two men opened fired and injured each other.

The incident took place at about 7:15 p.m. at the Alamo Jewelry Mart in the Alamo Plaza Shopping Center. The employee was wounded in the upper torso but his injuries were not life-threatening injuries in the incident, according to news reports in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Contra Costa Times. Information about the condition of the suspect, a 50-year-old Alamo man, was not available.

(An Alamo man trying to rob a jewelry store? Sorry, to resort to stereotyping but, hey, you don't hear about someone of that age and hometown resorting to robbery.)

Anyway, neither man's name was released. The robber initially refused to come out of the store as demanded by responding Contra Costa County Sheriff's deputies, and he briefly held a gun to his head. But he finally came out and was taken to the hospital.

An act of desperation is stealing food. Robbing a jewelry store is an act of greed. I don't care how bad the economy is doing. Taking a gun and shooting someone during a robbery is not the sign of a person who has good intentions. I seriously doubt a nice family man trying to provide for his children would take a gun and rob a jewelry store. This man fired his gun and was ready to murder for money.

How did he end up living in Alamo? Maybe he lived with his elderly parents or perhaps he inherited a house in Alamo. I doubt this guy earned an honest living his entire life.

5:48 -- I haven't read who shot at whom first. Clearly Bennett appears the aggressor because he arrived armed. But as I said, people [especially those with some sense of entitlement] might initiate an act of desperation [by THEIR standards, 3:23] and the whole thing escalates. I don't think that's a reason to wish someone dead-- no matter how bad they behaved.